04-20-2004, 09:06 PM
Reported 20/04/2004
Source Newsarama
![[Image: DDFATHERcvr_1.jpg]](http://www.newsarama.com/Marvel/DDFATHERcvr_1.jpg)
In an e-mail passage that in equal parts praised Marvel while poking DC in the eye, Mile High Comics owner Chuck Rozanski announced today via his e-mail newsletter that he will now be posting entire preview issues of Marvel Comics online at the Mile High Comics website, beginning with issue #1 of Daredevil: Father, due in stores next week.
Rozanski wrote: âI am delighted to finally be able to bring you a completely authorized advance preview of an entire comic book. For those of you who have been with us for a while, you might remember that about three years ago we posted on our website the entire contents of several black and white DC comics that had yet to be published. We were given these advances at a DC retailers meeting, with the proviso that we couldn't show them to our customers until the following week.
âOnce we posted the books to our website, and I simultaneously mentioned them in this newsletter, advance sales on all of those books surged upwards by 20%. You would have to think that DC would be delighted by a 20% increase in sales, but when DC President Paul Levitz discovered that we had posted these sneak peek books online, however, he threw a fit. It seems that while DC intended the 40 retailers in attendance to physically show these advances to their customers in their stores, they had no intention of letting anyone see them on the Internet. The logic entailed in this distinction escapes me. How is an online customer different from a retail store customer? Both get to read the entire comic, and both then decide for themselves if they want to buy a copy for their collections. DC, however, in their infinite wisdom, made it a policy from our âtransgressionâ forward to no longer allow retailers advance copies of their comics.
âNow, in a clear manifestation of why Marvel will always be able to outperform DC in the comics marketplace, Marvel Comics has set up a program with us under which they will be sending us all of the pages of entire comics to post for your reading pleasure. In this first instance, we are thrilled to be able to let you read DAREDEVIL: FATHER #1 ( <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/marvel/">http://www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/marvel/</a><!-- m --> ).
âSeveral of our staff members who are Daredevil and Joe Quesada fans read this book yesterday, and they liked it very, very much! Based on their initial reactions, I would predict that this book is going to be a nationwide sell-out within just a couple of days of it's scheduled April 28th release. (click on image for more information)
âOddly, while having this book available for you makes me very happy, it also creates a problem for us. You see, we don't have enough copies on order to fill any extra orders. We did place a large reorder yesterday, but Diamond could not confirm for us as to whether we're going to get the books. In reality, Marvel may already be sold out of their small overrun on this issue. If you don't already have this book on order from us (or your local comics retailer...)â¦â
Mile High Comics is the largest comics retailer in the United States. Also, until last year, Marvel would often preview their own comics at their website, calling them "dotcomics." This practice was suspended roughly mid-2003.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think this can only be a good move for those who are dithering over buying a particular book without seeing any of it. Hats off to Milehigh!
Source Newsarama
In an e-mail passage that in equal parts praised Marvel while poking DC in the eye, Mile High Comics owner Chuck Rozanski announced today via his e-mail newsletter that he will now be posting entire preview issues of Marvel Comics online at the Mile High Comics website, beginning with issue #1 of Daredevil: Father, due in stores next week.Rozanski wrote: âI am delighted to finally be able to bring you a completely authorized advance preview of an entire comic book. For those of you who have been with us for a while, you might remember that about three years ago we posted on our website the entire contents of several black and white DC comics that had yet to be published. We were given these advances at a DC retailers meeting, with the proviso that we couldn't show them to our customers until the following week.
âOnce we posted the books to our website, and I simultaneously mentioned them in this newsletter, advance sales on all of those books surged upwards by 20%. You would have to think that DC would be delighted by a 20% increase in sales, but when DC President Paul Levitz discovered that we had posted these sneak peek books online, however, he threw a fit. It seems that while DC intended the 40 retailers in attendance to physically show these advances to their customers in their stores, they had no intention of letting anyone see them on the Internet. The logic entailed in this distinction escapes me. How is an online customer different from a retail store customer? Both get to read the entire comic, and both then decide for themselves if they want to buy a copy for their collections. DC, however, in their infinite wisdom, made it a policy from our âtransgressionâ forward to no longer allow retailers advance copies of their comics.
âNow, in a clear manifestation of why Marvel will always be able to outperform DC in the comics marketplace, Marvel Comics has set up a program with us under which they will be sending us all of the pages of entire comics to post for your reading pleasure. In this first instance, we are thrilled to be able to let you read DAREDEVIL: FATHER #1 ( <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/marvel/">http://www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/marvel/</a><!-- m --> ).
âSeveral of our staff members who are Daredevil and Joe Quesada fans read this book yesterday, and they liked it very, very much! Based on their initial reactions, I would predict that this book is going to be a nationwide sell-out within just a couple of days of it's scheduled April 28th release. (click on image for more information)
âOddly, while having this book available for you makes me very happy, it also creates a problem for us. You see, we don't have enough copies on order to fill any extra orders. We did place a large reorder yesterday, but Diamond could not confirm for us as to whether we're going to get the books. In reality, Marvel may already be sold out of their small overrun on this issue. If you don't already have this book on order from us (or your local comics retailer...)â¦â
Mile High Comics is the largest comics retailer in the United States. Also, until last year, Marvel would often preview their own comics at their website, calling them "dotcomics." This practice was suspended roughly mid-2003.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think this can only be a good move for those who are dithering over buying a particular book without seeing any of it. Hats off to Milehigh!
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